External Relationships Coordinator

Organizational Context

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world’s largest humanitarian organization, with a network of 191-member National Societies (NSs). The overall aim of IFRC is “to inspire, encourage, facilitate, and promote at all times all forms of humanitarian activities by NSs with a view to preventing and alleviating human suffering and thereby contributing to the maintenance and promotion of human dignity and peace in the world.”  IFRC works to meet the needs and improve the lives of vulnerable people before, during and after disasters, health emergencies and other crises. 

IFRC is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (Movement), together with its member National Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The work of IFRC is guided by the following fundamental principles: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. 

IFRC is led by its Secretary General, and has its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The Headquarters are organized into three main Divisions: (i) National Society Development and Operations Coordination; (ii) Global Relations, Humanitarian Diplomacy and Digitalization; and (iii) Management Policy, Strategy and Corporate Services.

IFRC has five regional offices in Africa, Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe, and the Americas.  IFRC also has country cluster delegations and country delegations throughout the world. Together, the Geneva Headquarters and the field structure (regional, cluster and country) comprise the IFRC Secretariat.

IFRC has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment and other forms of harassment, abuse of authority, discrimination, and lack of integrity (including but not limited to financial misconduct). IFRC also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. 

The External Relationships Coordinator, as part of the global SPRM team, will contribute to maintaining, cultivating, and building partnerships with external donors with a goal to raise resources for the IFRC and its members. The position will be responsible for understanding donor strategic priorities, knowing how funding is accessed, establishing key contacts within the agencies, and stewarding relationship building at senior and technical levels. The position will be responsible to coordinate the development of quality proposals as well as ensure understanding of donor policies and procedures in support of quality implementation. 

The holder of this post will need to network and collaborate closely with IFRC delegations, technical units in the Asia Pacific Regional Office and Geneva Headquarters, and other Red Cross Red Crescent stakeholders.  It is expected that this person will have the gravitas and background to approach and deal with donor agencies, corporations, and governments at a senior level.

Job Purpose

Under the supervision and guidance of the Head of SPRM, the role works towards establishing and cultivating relationships with external donors to raise resources for IFRC and its members to deliver on their humanitarian mandate. The External Relationships Coordinator will establish professional relationships within the priority agencies, identify channels for accessing funding, build an engagement strategy, and cultivate the relationship for the long term for the benefit of the IFRC Network.

Job Duties and Responsibilities

In line with the IFRC Agenda for Renewal and the 2021 Global Resource Mobilization Strategy, the Coordinator will focus more specifically on the following priority stakeholders :

• Multilateral Development Banks such as ADB, AIIB, and Islamic Development Bank,
• Innovative Financing initiatives such as blended financing, Islamic financing, and other mechanisms,
• Government funding from established and emerging aid agencies,
• Corporations and foundations,
• Multilaterals such as the UN operational agencies

Specific responsibilities are as follows:

Strategy

• Understand donor strategy and disbursal mechanisms, identifying the best arrangements for RCRC partnerships.
• Establish strategies for major donor relationships, building consensus and awareness of the strategies with senior leadership and IFRC staff throughout the region, also involving relevant IFRC members as deemed appropriate.
• Manage consultants or researchers to conduct periodic stakeholder analysis on promising or existing donors that can inform strategy and tactical decisions.
• Develop a long-term engagement plan for each donor.
• Establish funding targets over a multi-year time frame for each donor under his/her responsibility.
• Organize and facilitate annual summit meetings of leadership from IFRC regional office and/or Geneva HQ with appropriate senior level donor staff to discuss overall relationship strategic complementarities.

Coordination and building profile:

• Coordinate with IFRC SPRM team in Geneva to ensure a joined-up and coherent global approach and to take advantage of contacts and resources.
• Organize and conduct external partner (donor) briefings and meetings on emergencies, thematic areas, or emerging current topics of interest.
• Work closely with RCRC partner national societies with relationships with home country government, corporate, and foundation donors in accordance with internal RCRC rules for engagement. This work will be done in collaboration with staff focused on relationships with Red Cross Red Crescent members.
• Connect technical staff of IFRC, National Societies in Asia Pacific, and other RCRC partners with counterparts at donor agencies.
• Pursue platforms for IFRC speakers, leadership, technical staff, and operational staff at events sponsored by donors.
• Attend conferences and meetings of donors (online and in-person) to build profile and network.
• Coordinate closely with IFRC Heads of Delegations or National Societies in Asia Pacific in charge of specific relationships and in hubs of donor influence (Bangkok, Beijing, Singapore, etc.).
• Develop written and online materials targeting donor community for promotion of IFRC and NS programs.

Donor Stewardship:

• Establish professional contacts within target corporations, governments, multi-laterals in cooperation with other Red Cross Red Crescent relationship holders (such as national societies with government back donors).
• Ensure regular verbal and written contact with key donor contacts ensuring understanding on current projects, latest on IFRC work, and possibilities for the future.

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)

Promotion of Concepts and Proposals:

• Track funding windows and channels for submitting unsolicited and solicited (RFPs, call for proposals, etc.) proposals in collaboration with IFRC business development colleagues.
• Coordinate / participate in proposal development teams and write/ prepare budgets as required.
• Submit concepts or program documents to key people in donor agencies to build awareness of IFRC work in Asia Pacific.
• As appropriate, share timely information with donors of IFRC and NS disaster response information.

Build capacity of IFRC offices:

• Share intelligence about strategies, contacts, and funding opportunities with IFRC delegations.
• Provide training to delegation and NS staff on donor-specific guidelines, strategies, and ways of working.

Systems building and maintenance:

• Work with Geneva Headquarters and regional colleagues in establishment and maintenance of a customer relationship management (CRM) system using systems being created globally.
• Establish dashboard with key performance indicators on external donor relationships including revenue, contact management.

Reporting:

• Provide periodic progress reports on contacts, funding opportunities, and engagement.

Management:

• Oversee the ongoing work of external relations-focused personnel in the regional team.
• Provide inspiration and ideas for excelling in the work of external relationships building to the wider network of colleagues in delegations and across teams.
• Set objectives with team for year and conduct regular progress reviews.
• Ensure professional development opportunities of direct reports.
• Deputize for the SPRM Regional Head when required

Advisory to Senior Leadership:

• Prepare and brief Senior IFRC Leadership for high-level meetings with Donor Leadership.
• Provide information to Senior Leadership on ad-hoc basis about questions related to donors under responsibility of this position.
• Support Regional Director as needed on donor group meetings such as Donor Advisory Group or Humanitarian Advisory Group.

Education

Required

• Bachelor’s degree

Preferred

• Master’s degree in a relevant field

Experience

Required

• 5+ years of work experience with donor agency or with UN/NGO/RCRC partnership role, in particular in managing relationships with multilateral institutions
• 7+ years of strong background in humanitarian or long-term development programming
• Significant work experience requiring extensive networking and partnership building (beyond project management)
• Track record in coordinating evidence-based and quality proposals
• Experience interacting with funding mechanisms of institutional or corporate donors

Preferred

• Work experience with the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement
• Work experience with a humanitarian, donor, non-profit making organization

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

Required

• Advanced IT skills (Windows, Word processing, PowerPoint, spreadsheets)
• Exceptional standard of fluency in written and spoken English
• Able to work independently and as part of the team
• Skills in training and developing staff
• Exceptional organizational ability with an eye for detail
• Good coordination and negotiation skills, with the capacity to build partnerships with internal and external organisations.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and networking skills, able to build relationships with people at all levels of the organisation across multiple countries and cultures.
• Demonstrated knowledge of institutional donor landscape for humanitarian community and contacts within relevant agencies
• Understanding of cultural and regional context within Asia Pacific
• Ability to work and communicate efficiently in a multicultural, multilingual and cross-functional context.
• Fluent spoken and written English

Preferred

• Documentation preparation/presentation and computer-based production skills
• Good command of another IFRC official language (French, Spanish or Arabic)

Competencies, Values and Comments

Values: Respect for diversity; Integrity; Professionalism; Accountability

Core competencies: Communication; Collaboration and teamwork; Judgement and decision making; National society and customer relations; Creativity and innovation; Building trust

Functional competencies: Strategic orientation; Building alliances; Leadership; Empowering others

Managerial competencies: Managing staff performance; Managing staff development